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Doctor Who Season 8 Premiere in Cardiff – part two

Allonsy!

Hello again Whovians! We had a bit of sleep and we are back in action! Today, Doctor Who crew and stars are attending the premiere in London and on Saturday, they will fly to Korea! It’s going to be a mega busy weekend for them but this is what you get for being involved in the biggest s-f show on the planet! Traveling through timezones, meeting crazy fans, lack of rest – this is Whovian history in the making and everybody is very excited.

Clara, be my pal. Tell me, am I a good man?

Red carpet treatment

If you have missed first part of our review from the red carpet, please click on the link below. Doctor Who fans are incredible and we had buckets of fun chasing after cosplayers to take their pictures!

Now, the second part is where things are getting truly interesting. As you know, we had to split up to fully cover the event. Mal was assigned to keep an eye on the main door to St David’s Hall and Rita went to check the entrance to the red carpet area along with other journalists. This strategic move allowed us to notice everything worth knowing about. It can be a hard thing to work alone – even the Doctor needs companions to help him! At least every previous reincarnation of the Doctor did. The 12th Doctor doesn’t seem to need companions or assistants at all. He has carers so he doesn’t need to care!

Daleks arrive in cloud of smoke

Dalek chasing the BBC cameraman

Stop filming and run or you will be exterminated!

At 10:30, Malicia witnessed the sudden arrival of two Daleks in a cloud of smoke that scared the children nearly to tears. The Daleks were soon followed by Cybermen and the full invasion began. It is worth noting that both Daleks were radio controlled, while hired actors were dressed in metal suits. Doctor’s enemies paraded up and down the street, trying to exterminate passer-byes or strangle the photographers and BBC workers. One Cyberman got into a short row with a police officer. He was not pleased and didn’t take kindly to being pushed around. The machine was threatened with pair of handcuffs and confrontation seemed unavoidable. Luckily for everybody involved, the BBC Radio Wales presenter Jason Mohammad was able to separate them and Cyberman returned to its routine patrol. To lighten the mood, Jason announced that he would be interviewing the stars and running a Q&A session after the premiere of “Deep Breath” episode. His revelations were received with huge applause and cheers from the public.

Police officer is warning the Cyberman to behave

The invasion continues – Cybermen arrive

Cyberman is looking around – you will be upgraded or deleted!

Cybermen ready for action

We have to tell you more about Jason Mohammad. He is an incredibly energetic person and a brilliant commentator. He was practically all over the place – interviewing fans and guests, cheering and dancing, braking up fights between Daleks/Cybermen and journalists. Jason has joined BBC in 1997 right after graduating from Swansea University in broadcast journalism. He worked for BBC Wales Today as a reporter and hosted a number of successful radio shows for BBC Radio Wales. Since 2013, he is the host of Final Score on BBC One, snooker commentator and presents a daily morning show for BBC Wales Radio. He has also been featured on Doctor Who twice: in “Christmas Invasion” and “Voyage of the Damned”. He is the right person for the job then!

Reporting from red carpet is not only a privilege but a real adventure as well. The best part of the job was hanging with the other photojournalists from every respectable newspaper in the country. The journalists are a crazy bunch, we tell you. They carry at least 30 kilograms worth of equipment (at least two Canon or Nikon cameras with tele-lenses), backpacks willed with different filters, additional lenses and external flashlights. It seems that the bags and cameras weight nothing – they move around at the speed of light, joke, laugh out loud, tease each other mercilessly. They are not afraid to lay flat on the ground just to get a good shot, a rare dedication for the job. And while they work their hardest to catch every moment, they still find the time to have fun! Daleks are trying to exterminate the audience? All cameras ready, but the photogs (a slang term describing a photojournalist) were screaming their best advices to the crowd how to fight off the monsters. “Hey, give the can a healthy boot!” – a smiling 10 year old girl tried to kick the Dalek to the loud approval of the people and hit home. “For the Doctor!” the journalists were triumphing and we were clapping with them. The girl was declared a hero of the day and would be featured in the press! Does anybody want a selfie with a robot? There is always a right moment to get the smartphone out of the pocket and take a picture. Cyberman is chasing you? Let’s hide behind the cameras and pretend you are not there. It was a pure joy watching them work and play. Carpe diem, tomorrow you might be dodging the bullets in Gaza…

Ready, steady, shoot!

Waiting for the arrival

Here they come!

It’s true that time does go fast when you are having a ball. We haven’t been watching the clock but suddenly we realized we were running late. The description on our tickets said that film premiere would start exactly at 12:15 but the stars have not arrived yet. One look at the BBC crew was enough to confirm that we were correct. Nervous looks, endless phone calls, whispers – and then at 11:45 a black car showed up. Journalists threw themselves to get the best places, public went wild – they have arrived!

Peter Capaldi approaching BBC crew for an interview

Interview is about to start

Interview in progress

Fans are the most important – the new Doctor started signing autographs straight away

Where are you from? Poland and Malta? Malta is a beautiful country! Mr Capaldi signing picture for us

Peter Capaldi emerged from the car first, casually dressed in Hugo Boss dark navy suit and a shirt. Jenna Coleman appeared seconds after him, wearing a stunning red dress from Peekaboo Vintage Red Maxi line. She was followed by Samuel Anderson in an elegant three piece grey suit. Sorry girls, if you are thinking about purchasing a copy of Jenna’s dress, we have a bad news for you! It has been sold out completely and apparently, Jenna could keep the last dress the famous London boutique had on stock.

Mental note to ourselves: bring earplugs next time we are about to attend a red carpet event! 10.000 screaming fans can severely hurt your hearing. It ‘s impossible to describe what was happening when Peter Capaldi rose his hand in a greeting and smiled. It was like a bomb has exploded somewhere near us and the shop windows started to shake! Thousands of hands holding posters, autograph pads, magazines, t-shirts and million of other items were thrown out in his direction, melodic chanting “Peter!Peter!” filled the air. You could have seen the shock on actors’ faces when they saw the crazy crowd. Rita has been standing right next to the barriers and noticed that Steven Moffat, who left the car as the last person, looked around and whispered “WOW!”. Lots of visitors were expected to attend the premiere but the real number of fans surprised everybody.

Steven Moffat being interviewed and Samuel Anderson walking right behind him

Peter, Jenna and Samuel quickly recovered from the astonishment. They posed for the obligatory portraits and spoke to BBC reporters about their first impressions of the opening day. Peter was first to approach the fans saying “Who wants my autograph?” and he laughed with delight as people used all kind of tricks to get his attention – from climbing the barricades, shouting utter nonsense (like “I love spaghetti!”), waving flags and declaring their feelings to the Oscar winning actor. We are sure that Mr Capaldi must have signed more than 400 autographs during his walk on the red carpet. He kept signing during photo-shoots and interviews, stopped to talk to kids and even signed a Big Issue magazine for a vendor!

We have already mentioned that Jenna Coleman looked like Disney Princess in her beautiful long red dress. Following Peter’s example, Jenna greeted her fans waving her hand in true royal fashion and then posed for photographs along with Peter, Steven Moffat, Samuel Anderson and solo. In real life, Jenna looks even prettier than on screen but it must be noted that she is very tiny! Karen Gillian, the actress playing Amy Pond, a ginger haired Scottish companion to 11th Doctor, was incredibly tall. In contrast, even wearing golden high-heeled shoes, Jenna barely reached Mr Capaldi’s shoulders. Her delicate frame might look worrying but it is not stopping her from doing her own stunts on the show. Jenna spoke to the press and signed couple of autographs including our own.

Red carpet Rita

We haven’t been able to reach Samuel Anderson to get his signature as he was quickly moved away from fans and spent a long while talking to the press and TV crew. We think that BBC producers were a bit afraid that fans could start asking him questions, but if that’s the case, it was unnecessary caution. There was absolutely no time to ask questions and it was too loud to hear any answers! Also, the probability that the actor would like to share any secrets with us at the red carpet is minimal. We thought that once the guests are seated inside, we would have a chance to approach him, but we couldn’t see him anywhere. Oh well, there’s always another time. Samuel Anderson will play a recurring character named Danny Pink, a teacher at famous Coal High School and a colleague of Clara’s. Some sources are claiming that he will join the TARDIS duo in their travels, but we had no official confirmation for that. We will have to wait and see.

And here’s another picture of a Dalek – just because we think they are cool

The stars spend nearly 40 minutes greeting the fans. Finally it was time to go. As VIP ticket holders, we had the chance to walk the red carpet ourselves and we have used that opportunity to take some pictures. In the lobby, we have been greeted by BBC workers that directed us to our seats. Thrilled to the core we have made our way up the stairs but that’s a tale for another day!

Please return tomorrow as we still have some excellent news to share! Till we meet again!